CENTAUREA PUMILIO

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. AEGLALOPHILA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Aegialophila pumilio, Crocodilium pumilio.

Meaning:- Centaurea (Gr) Centaur, Centauros. The centaur Chiron was cured of a

hoof wound with this plant.

Pumilio (L) Very small, low, small, dwarf.

General description:- Perennial, with thick, cylindrical root tubers and a spar-

ingly branched woody stock.

Stem:-

1) Very short, simple or branched.

Leaves:-

1) In a basal rosette, irregularly lyrate-pinnatifid, grey-tomentose.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, short-pedunculate, in small clusters.

2) Involucre, c. 20 mm. diam, ovoid.

3) Upper part of middle phyllaries with a broad, scarious, dentate-lacerate border

and a weak apical spine 4-9 mm.

4) Florets pink, outer slightly longer than the inner, marginal, widely radiating.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 3-4 mm.

2) Pappus 3 times as long as the achene, reddish, outer hairs plumose, innermost

row subulate setae.

Key features:-

1) Apical spine of appendages 5-9 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy and gravelly seashores, local but sometimes gregarious, rarely in

rocky habitats some distance inland, up to 200 m.

Distribution:- Known from the Ionian island of Kefalonia, the island of Elafonisos

(between southern Peloponnisos and Kithira) and north-eastern Africa and Syria.

In Crete occurs only in the far west.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare (R) according to IUCN 1997

Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981